


The Fire of Kalibad

by Metz77



Series: Aces High [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-11 20:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/802715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metz77/pseuds/Metz77
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While on his hundreds of years of traveling to put off his death in The Impossible Astronaut, the Doctor picked up an old friend seemingly on a whim. In this story, their voyages take them to Kalibad VII, a dying planet which hides a terrible secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**PROLOGUE**

Dawn. The pale rosy light of the rising sun spread lazily across the rocky wasteland of an alien world, shaped by the glaciers of an ice age countless millennia past. Streaks of minerals in a dozen colors cut through the barren ground, forming and meandering and fading away. Neither tree nor mountain nor gully lent variation to the endless flat expanse.

Nobody came aboveground to this desolate place without good reason, and so nobody was around to watch as a blue police box slowly faded into sight with a VWORP VWORP VWORP. On the whole, the event clashed tremendously with the ambiance, so perhaps that was for the best.

A young-looking man with messy hair and an extraordinary chin poked his head out of the door of the box and looked around, sniffing. Apparently satisfied, he stepped out onto the waste, unconsciously straightening his bowtie as he did so. "Ace!" he called back through the door. "It's all clear!"

An older woman, probably in her thirties or well-preserved forties, stepped out of the box, shrugging on a battered old bomber jacket. "Now when you say 'all clear,'" Ace McShane said, fixing him with a look, "do you mean 'there are Daleks hiding just out of sight' again, like the last time?"

"Of course not!" the Doctor protested. "Maybe. Probably. At any rate, there doesn't seem to be much of an out-of-sight, so we should be fine."

"Right." Ace took a look around, her breath catching as she did. "It's beautiful."

"Yes, I've rather outdone myself, haven't I?" the Doctor said, spinning around to take in the entire vista. "Kalibad VII, if the TARDIS is to be believed. Although whether or not to believe the TARDIS is another story."

Ace didn't reply. This was the first time that she'd set foot on an alien world since the start of the Time War — eighteen years ago, in her personal timeline — and the experience was even more incredible than she'd remembered.

A thought suddenly struck her. "Doctor, is this planet inhabited?"

"I thought so," the Doctor said, frowning. "At least, it is if it's Kalibad VII. Unless..." His eyes widened. "Back into the TARDIS!"

Having traveled with the Doctor for four subjective years and trained on Gallifrey for over ten had given Ace a thorough education on when and when not to ask questions. Without hesitation, she tried to whirl toward the ship, but her legs caught in something and she went topping to the ground. Looking down, Ace saw the reason for her fall and wished she hadn't.

Somehow without her noticing, something huge and flat blending into one of the reddish mineral streaks had wrapped itself around her legs and was creeping inexorably up the rest of her. She hit at the thing uselessly. "Doctor!" The thing started constricting, sending lightning bolts of pain shooting through her legs and hips. "Doctor, help me!"

Ace thrashed about until she got to a point where she could see the Doctor, only to see that he'd been engulfed almost entirely, only a tuft of hair sticking out of a green creature like the one that had ahold of her. She fought back panic as she tried to reach for her sonic screwdriver... but no, it was in a jacket pocket the thing had already engulfed. As the thing flowed onto her stomach, Ace took a deep breath, hoping for a miracle to save them.


	2. Part 1

PART ONE

Black spots were beginning to swim through Ace's vision. The creature had engulfed all of her except her face now, and her panicked hyperventilation combined with her limited breathing space were making her dizzy. She made one more feeble attempt to struggle free of the thing's grip, but to no avail.

The whirring sound of a sonic screwdriver abruptly filled the air, and the creature engulfing the Doctor shattered into a thousand pieces. Staggering to his feet in a particularly ungainly way, the Doctor rushed over to Ace and aimed the screwdriver at her own captor. Almost immediately upon the device's activation, the creature began hardening and constricting. Ace's vision began to tunnel, but before she reached the point of unconsciousness, the thing shattered like the first one had.

The Doctor helped Ace to her feet, brushing off her jacket as he did so. "Palarons. Fascinating things. Uniquely adapted for this environment. They have hardly any brains — or other systems for that matter — and just lie dormant in a sort of standby mode until somebody unfortunate steps in one. The palaron engulfs them, suffocates them, and slowly digests them. Thought I wasn't going to find the right frequency in time, but we got out all right, eh?" He grinned and patted Ace on the shoulder.

"So, what, did we land in the wrong part of the planet?" Ace asked.

"Not the wrong place, the wrong time. There was some sort of cosmic catastrophe in orbit around the planet and the fallout made the surface uninhabitable. Within half a millennium all of the Kalibadi were dead." The Doctor turned to re-enter the TARDIS, but then spun around again. "Actually, if I'm remembering right — and I usually do, except when I don't — the Kalibadi aren't extinct yet. Right now they should be barely holding out in small, primitive groups below the surface. Want to go take a look?" He started walking in what seemd like a random direction.

"I dunno," Ace said, trailing behind him. "Sounds a bit depressing."

"Depressing?" the Doctor said. "No! Well, maybe a little. Okay, a lot. But dying cultures have the most fascinating legends and stories, and do you know what I love more than anything?"

"Interfering in other people's business?" Ace suggested.

The Doctor snorted. "You spent too much time on Gallifrey. Come on, time's a-wasting."

* * *

Before long, the pair of travelers found an opening leading to the network of caves underground. They had encountered a few more of the palarons on the way, but now that they knew the proper setting, it was only a moment's work for the Doctor and Ace to drive them off with their screwdrivers. They stood together looking into the hole.

"How far down do you think it goes?" Ace asked, peering into the blackness.

"Well the way I see it, we've got two choices," the Doctor replied. "Either we can get a depth reading with our sonic screwdrivers like responsible adults, or we can jump and hope for the best."

Their eyes met and a moment of understanding passed between them. Simultaneously they leapt into the abyss, the Doctor shouting "Geronimo!" on the way.

Thankfully, instead of being a sheer drop, the way into the cave system was more of a smooth chute. The two were guided down into the pitch blackness beneath the ground, where they slid for maybe three more twisting and turning minutes before being unceremoniously deposited on the cavern floor in an undignified tangle of limbs. Ace extracted herself from the Doctor and leaned painfully againt the cavern wall.

The Doctor was already on his feet, his face periodically lit by the sonic screwdriver as he aimed it in various directions around the cavern. Ace heard him flip the screwdriver to its analysis mode as he finished. "According to the sonic resonance readings," he said, "we need to go this way."

Ace sighed. "I can't see you, Doctor."

"Oh. Right, This way." His screwdriver lit up, indicating a passageway to Ace's left.

Ace and the Doctor made their way carefully through the tunnel, sticking close together and keeping a hand on the nearest wall. However, after the third time tripping over an unseen rock, Ace brought them to a halt. She fiddled with her sonis screwdriver for a while in the dark before finally managing to get it into its torch mode. Taking point, she swept the beam of light back and forth ahead of them as the Doctor took readings and murmured course directions.

After about a half hour, he said, "Now we just need to head straight and we should hit civilization before long. Well, I say civilization..."

Silence fell for a few moments. Ace saw an opportunity to ask something she'd been wondering for a while now. "Doctor—"

"You know, Ace, I've been wondering about that," the Doctor interrupted. "Why have you been calling me Doctor? Not that I don't prefer it, but it's a bit odd. At first I'd wondered if I'd picked up the wrong person, some sort of android or shapeshifter or something meant to destroy me, which wouldn't be totally unprecedented, but now I think I remember this happening as early as Gallifrey. Was it the Time Lords? No, I doubt it. They tend not to give a damn what people call me. Actually, if I remember right, it started after I regenerated into my eighth body. Is that it? Is it because I'm in another body?"

Ace hesitated. "I know you're the same man," she said at last. "I got far enough through the Academy that I understand regeneration pretty well. But... you're not the Professor anymore. You're the same person, but not the same persona, if that makes sense. I called you Professor because that's what you seemed like to me. You don't act like that anymore."

"That makes sense, I suppose." the Doctor said. "Ah, I hear voices up ahead. And if I'm not mistaken, it's getting lighter."

Ace switched off her screwdriver to find that they could actually see pretty easily due to some bioluminescent lichen clinging to the walls.

"Oh, that's _good_ ," the Doctor said, his face inches from the lichen. His tongue darted out and quickly sampled the lichen. A smile spread across his face. "That is _excellent_."

"What is it?" Ace asked, glancing in the direction of the voices. They seemed to be growing louder.

"The lichen aren't naturally this bright," the Doctor said. "It seems that when the Kalibadi were forced belowground, they selectively bred it to the point where they could see comfortably. It's a little dimmer than daylight because each successive generation of Kalibadi has had better night vision, reducing their tolerance to light."

Normally Ace would've found this interesting — and she did at least take a sample for chemical analysis later — but at the moment she was more concerned with the people who had just entered the small chamber. They were mostly human-looking, but had eyes that were larger than normal and had a huge pupil with no irises. One of them was holding what was clearly some sort of gun. "Doctor?"

"Yes," the Kalibadi with the gun said. "I am Doctor Pezen. My assistant here is Sub-Doctor Sarvalen. Identify yourselves."

The Doctor finaly turned from his examination of the lichen. "Oh, hello! I'm the Doctor, and this is my friend Ace." He stuck out his hand, but the Kalibadi had both taken a step backwards at his introduction.

" _The_ Doctor?" the one who'd been identified as Sarvalen said, his voice quavering. "But... but the prophecies! They should not yet come to pass!"

Ace shot the Doctor a look, but he seemed as confused as she was. "Sorry, prophecies?" he asked.

"Your coming was foretold," Pezen explained. He lowered his gun. "We are honored to be the people allowed to greet you, Great Doctor. We will accompany you to the Honored One, if you allow it."

The Doctor glanced at Ace, turning his head far enough that the Kalibadi couldn't see him wink. Great, Ace thought. He's up to something. "By all means," the Doctor said to Pezen, "lead on."

* * *

"Doctor," Ace hissed. "Mind letting me in on what's going on?"

Pezen and Sarvalen had brought them through a village occupying a huge cavern. The huts that comprised the settlement were all made of compressed and dried mud, but they all seemed to be well-supplied with electricity, and there were antigrav lifts carrying people to huts on outcropping cliffs far above. There was even someone using what looked like a floating lens to tend to the lichen covering the walls of the cavern. The Doctor and Ace had been led down what seemed to be the village's main thoroughfare and into a large hut at the end. This was obviously an important place; the doorway was surrounded with inlaid semiprecious gems and, from what Ace could tell, all of the roads in the village seemed to radiate outward from the building. Pezen and Sarvalen had left them in a waiting room while entering an inner chamber to appraise the Honored One of the situation.

"Well, this isn't the first time people have thought I was a figure of prophecy," the Doctor said. "Or the second. Or third. At any rate, they'll probably think I'm some sort of mystical savior figure. So I figure I find out what's ailing them, do the old one-two with the screwdriver, the brain, and you, collect some of their stories, then scarper before you can say 'Lord President Borusa is a greedy, pompous git.'"

"Something's bugging me, though," Ace said. "Didn't you say they'd come underground centuries ago and become primitive? How do they still have electricity?"

The Doctor frowned thoughtfully. "Haven't quite figured that one out yet. Working on it. _Really_ hoping I don't dislike the answer."

"Does that happen often, then?"

"Often enough," the Doctor said, shrugging. "A hundred years or so back I ran into an ark ship from Earth that was torturing a star whale instead of using engines."

Ace sighed and sagged into her seat. "Sometimes I hate my species."

The Doctor looked at her sharply. "You're— Look, there's no end of good reasons to hate humanity," he began.

"Thanks," Ace said, chuckling bitterly.

"No, but listen," the Doctor continued. "There's so many more reasons to love humanity. I mean, I'm a bit biased, but humans in general are incredible. Their art, their music, even their science is strange and wonderful at times. They not only survive against impossible odds, they thrive on them. And if the actions of a few sometimes make me doubt them, well, more will come along soon to let me know my faith in humanity is justified. And," he added, "I'd trust nobody more than a human to keep me in check."

"I suppose you're right," Ace conceded. "I mean, I know humans have a lot to offer the universe. 'S why I founded A Charitable Earth."

"Yes, tell me about that," the Doctor said curiously. "Sarah Jane was telling me a bit about it the last time I saw her. You help at-risk youths in London?"

"Well yes, but—"

Ace was cut off as Pezen reemerged from the inner room. "The Honored One is ready for you now, O Doctor. Please enter at your convenience."

The Doctor glanced at Ace. "We'll talk later." He rose from his seat and entered the inner chamber, Ace following close behind.

There was a Kalibadi woman slumped in an ornate throne directly ahead of the door. Unlike the other Kalibadi they'd seen so far, her face and arms were covered with tattooed markings, but what truly set her apart was that she was covered in the glowing lichen. The walls, floor, and ceiling were coated in it, and it flowed up the throne and onto her, blanketing her entire body except her arms and head. Her eyes were pure white — either rolled up into her head or just lacking pupils, Ace couldn't tell. From the way the Doctor's hand twitched, Ace could tell he was holding back an urge to scan the woman. She didn't move or otherwise acknowledge their entrance at all.

"Is this some kind of—" the Doctor began, turning around, but he cut off when the door sealed with a booming finality.

"I don't like this, Doctor," Ace said, eyeing the woman on the throne.

_Doctor._

Ace jumped. The sibilant voice had seemingly issued from all around them.

"Yes, that's me," the Doctor confirmed nonchalantly. "I presume I'm speaking to the Honored One."

 _It is a great blessing that you have graced us with your presence in our hour of need._ The light of the lichen lining the room pulsed to the rhythm of the Honored One's words. _Our life as we know it is in grave danger._

"Well that's no good," the Doctor said, approaching the throne and eyeing the spots where lichen met flesh. "Am I speaking to the Kalibadi or to the lichen?"

 _I am beyond Kalibadi,_ the Honored One said. _I was born among them, but my destiny was of a higher sort. Exposed to the Fire of Kalibad, I transcended my base nature and became one with our world. But enough. You know this already, God of War._

The Doctor's expression barely changed, but Ace could see that some pieces were starting to click together. "Yes, of course. Well!" he said, his face lighting up like his birthday had come early. "You need help. What can I do for you?"

_The magic of the Fire has sustained us for hundreds of years, ever since the Great Cataclysm. It creates our Honored Ones and sustains the mystic devices of our forefathers, without which we would die. But there are elements of our society who would rebel against our way of life. They claim that we must use the Fire to reclaim the top level, or we will stagnate and die. But such a thing is beyond the Fire of Kalibad. It would be extinguished, dooming our people._

"Actually, supposing that you could figure out how to manipulate the Fire properly — which, admittedly, is a huge supposition — that could work," the Doctor said. "If it's as powerful as you say it is, it may be able to create new life aboveground to kickstart the planet's biomes again. You never know until you try."

 _You neglect, O Doctor, that I am the Honored One,_ the Honored One hissed. Ace was starting to get a headache from the voice echoing through her head and the pulsing lights, but the Doctor showed no signs of suffering. _Exposure to the Fire made me who I am. I know its capabilities and its limitations. If the fire is used in such a way, we will surely die._

"All right, fine, have it your way," the Doctor said irritably. "So what's the problem?"

Before the Honored One could answer, the door began to grind open. Pezen hurried in. "A thousand apologies, Honored One," he said. "The rebels are demanding entry. They have weapons!"

_Take up arms—_

"Send them in," the Doctor interrupted, looking thoughtful. "I'd like to hear what they have to say."

"As you wish, O Doctor," Pezen said, bowing to him and backing from the room. At a look from the Doctor, Ace carefully sidled into the dimmer light behind the throne. With any luck, she could watch the door without being seen.

After a moment, three Kalibadi entered. The one in the center was unarmed and adorned with tattoos that resembled but were distinct from the Honored One's, while the two flanking him carried weapons that looked like more powerful variations on the gun Pezen had been holding earlier.

"Greetings, Honored One," the obvious leader said, bowing mockingly. The other two did not move. "And to you, O Great and Powerful Doctor. How convenient that you grace us with your appearance now."

"Yes, well, I do try to turn up where I'm needed," the Doctor said.

 _Why have you forced your way into my sanctum, Kaldan?_ the Honored One demanded.

"The time has come to execute our plan, Honored One," Kaldan said. "If you will not grant access to the Fire of Kalibad, we will force you to open the door to the passage."

"Why?" the Doctor interjected. "What do you plan to do with the Fire?"

"Have you not been told?" Kaldan sneered. "Does the supposed God of War not know what our purpose is?"

"I'm not omniscient," the Doctor said mildly. "Well, I'm nearly so, but that tends to happen when you spend over a thousand years traveling the cosmos and the realms of time. All I know is what the Honored One has told me. I want to hear your side."

"Very well then, Deceitful One," Kaldan said. "I will tell you."

 _Blaspheme not within this sanctum!_ the Honored One exclaimed. The fungus flared so brightly that the Kalibadi were forced to shade their eyes until it dimmed again. _The Corruptor could not set foot within this holy space._

"Be silent," Kaldan said sharply. "I speak to the one who claims to be the Doctor." He turned to the Doctor. "We have grown content with our lot in life, Doctor. We have grown stagnant. Before long, the devices of our distant past will fail us, and then our people will be destroyed. Yet the Honored One is content to wait until our inexorable end becomes apparent rather than take steps to prevent it." Kaldan began to pace rapidly. "Only _I_ have the fortitude of will necessary to do what must be done! I will harness the Fire of Kalibad! I will use it to reshape the surface world into what our legends say it once was: a paradise of plenty, where our food comes not from fallible devices left by our ancestors, but from the world itself! I will resurrect our world from a barren waste, and raise the Kalibadi from our small, doomed population to its former glory, bringing the entire planet to heel!"

 _You fool,_ the Honored One said. _Your efforts would come to naught, and deprive us of our only sustenance in the same stroke._

"Unless you speak to give us access to the Fire of Kalibad, be silent!" Kaldan thundered. "Doctor, you see now that I am in the right."

"Well," the Doctor said, "here's the thing. Without knowing the exact nature of the Fire, I can't tell you whether you'd succeed. Problem is, even though I think you may have a shot, I sincerely doubt you or anybody you know has the advanced technical knowledge you'd need to harness the Fire in a way that will let you do all that. More likely you'd muck it all up and end up exactly where the Honored One says you will. So, no, you're not in the right at all, really."

"Then you are truly not a god at all, to doubt my wisdom," Kaldan sneered. "Honored One! You will allow us to access the passage!"

 _I cannot,_ the Honored One said. _Even if I were so inclined, the passage only opens when it is time for a new Honored One to ascend._

"Fine," Kaldan said. "Kill her."


	3. Part 2

PART TWO  
  
"Fine," Kaldan said. "Kill her."  
  
"No!" the Doctor shouted, his hand plunging into his coat with desperate speed. Ace knew he'd never grab his sonic screwdriver in time, so as the two nameless thugs raised their guns she flipped hers to the appropriate setting, sidestepped to get clear aim, and disabled the weapon of the thug on her left. Unfortunately, the one on the right managed to get off three shots into the Honored One before she could turn on him, but she and the Doctor took his gun out simultaneously, making it blow up in his face.  
  
The lichen in the room slowly faded to a dull glow, like that of a small nightlight.  
  
"She is dead," Kaldan said, satisfaction dripping from his voice. He pulled a small gun out of an armpit holster. "Rearm yourselves and call the others. We will reconvene in front of this building in twenty minutes, and then we shall find the new Honored One."  
  
The door slid shut, seemingly of its own accord. "You're not going anywhere," the Doctor snarled, locking the door with his screwdriver. His face was lined with the rage of a thousand years, a thousand battles, a thousand losses. "You've just murdered someone in cold blood. I'm not a _fan_ of murder."  
  
Kaldan and one of his lieutenants looked unimpresed, but the one whose gun had been blown up fell prone to the floor. "O Great Doctor! O Great God of War! Have pity upon me! I see now I have been misled!"  
  
"Fool!" Kaldan exploded. He kicked the man in the side hard enough to roll him several feet. "You betray me for a false god? You saw him use technology against us! Hardly the weapon of a god." Despite this tirade, the man on the floor continued to whimper pleas for mercy, tears running down his face. A look of disgust crossed Kaldan's face and he crouched, putting the barrel of his gun to the man's head. He looked up at the Doctor. "Open the door or I will kill Dashek here. Or will you use your godly magic to save him?"  
  
The Doctor twisted a setting knob on the screwdriver and raised it, his face set into a mask of hatred. "You will face a reckoning for what you've done, Kaldan," the Doctor said as the door slid open. "Your sins will not go unpunished."  
  
Kaldan simply smiled as he and his remaining lieutenant backed out of the room. As soon as he was out, the Doctor crossed to the Honored One and started scanning her with his screwdriver. "Ace, see to Dashek."  
  
As Ace knelt next to the now-silent Kalibadi, Pezen and Sarvalen rushed into the room. "We heard gunshots," Pezen said. "What—?" He cut off abruptly as he spotted the body on the throne. "Honored One!"  
  
"She's dead," the Doctor said, not looking up from his scanning.  
  
"Dead!" Sarvalen said, clutching at his chest. "Kaldan murdered her! I knew he was rebellious, but I never thought I would see the day that any Kalibadi would kill the Honored One." He looked as though he was about to be sick.  
  
"It was not Kaldan," Dashek said weakly. From what Ace could tell, the kick from Kaldan had caused serious damage to one of his organs. "It was I who fired the killing shot."  
  
Pezen spun towards him. "You!" he shouted, drawing his gun and advancing on Dashek. "You claim credit for such an act?"  
  
"No," Dashek said. "I accept responsibility. I was blinded by Kaldan's lies, but the Doctor has opened my eyes to the truth."  
  
"Then you accept your punishment," Pezen said, his hand tightening on the gun's grip. "By the authority of the Law-Giver, you die."  
  
"Don't you dare." The Doctor had finally turned from his study of the Honored One's corpse. "There will be no more death here today."  
  
"Our law calls for his execution, O Doctor," Pezen said tightly, his gun not wavering. "You would not countermand the orders of your brother the Law-Giver, would you?"  
  
"I would and I do," the Doctor said. "Dashek is repentant and under my protection. Ace, how's he doing?"  
  
"He's ruptured something," Ace said. Her eyes were fixed on Pezen's gun, her thumb poised on her screwdriver's activator. "If he doesn't get medical treatment soon, he'll die without anybody's help."  
  
"Right," the Doctor said, suddenly all business. "You two get him to a healer, on the double. If I find out he's died and you had something to do with it, you'll want to start running and not stop for a very long time, understand?" Pezen hesitated, then holstered his gun and nodded. He gestured to Sarvalen and the two carried Dashek out of the room.  
  
The Doctor turned to Ace. "Right. I'm going to go find the next Honored One. I need you to go to whatever passes for a hospital here and make sure Dashek gets proper care. Ask a few prodding questions, if you can do it without attracting attention. I think their legends are going to turn out to be a lot more important than I initially thought."  
  
"You've figured some of this out, Doctor," Ace said, falling into step beside him as he strode from the chamber. "What's going on?"  
  
"I'm not _entirely_ sure, Ace," the Doctor said. He adjusted a few settings on his sonic screwdriver and started to scan the air around them. "And there's no time to catch you up now. You'll know everything I know soon enough. I promise."  
  
"Right." As they left the building, Ace split off from him and followed after Pezen and Sarvalen, who were still visible down one of the radiating streets.  
  
Ace's mind spun into overdrive as she considered everything that had happened so far. The Kalibadi thought the Doctor was their war god — in fact, "doctor" seemed to be their word for a warrior. The TARDIS's translation matrix didn't bother to translate the term, which was puzzling. Had the Doctor been here before? Hell, had he caused the catastrophe that had rendered the surface of the planet a blasted waste? Ace didn't think so. The Doctor seemed to be as surprised by all this as she was, although it was possible that he would come later in his personal timeline.  
  
And then there was the matter of the Fire of Kalibad. Obviously it was some sort of advanced power source, but Ace seriously doubted a pre-spaceflight society could have created one that would last hundreds of years with no maintenance. And their society and even biology had adapted suspiciously quickly to its presence. Exposure to the Fire, rather than destroying the Kalibadi or giving them some sort of cancer, warped them beneficially, linking them to the planet in a strange symbiosis. And this had happened rapidly enough that there was some sort of way to determine the successor upon death — possibly some sort of biochemical signal, now that Ace thought of it, maybe carried by microscopic spores from the lichen. That would be how the Doctor would find the next one.  
  
Another oddity was the existence of the palarons. They were incredibly well-adapted to their environment... an environment which had only come into being less than five hundred years ago. Evolution could sometimes work quickly, but not that quickly. Something here wasn't adding up, and Ace was nearly certain it centered on the event that had blighted the planet.  
  
Ace stayed in the healer's house long enough to ensure Dashek was getting proper care before gesturing to Sarvalen to join her outside. “Why is Kaldan so intent on the Fire of Kalibad?” she asked.  
  
Sarvalen sighed. “It was, perhaps, inevitable,” he said. “He was placed in charge of bringing the destined Honored Ones to the Fire to claim their birthright. He has been doing this for nearly forty years, which is nearly unheard of.”  
  
“Why?” Ace asked.  
  
“Exposure to the Fire usually causes the attendants to die prematurely. Even the Honored One generally only lives up to five years or so after the transformation. As you can guess, Kaldan has seen the Fire many times; it clearly has caused some sort of madness in him. If he has his way, he will bring about a second Great Cataclsym.” He shook his head sadly.  
  
After a moment, Ace said, "Tell me your people's legends about the Catclysm."  
  
Shifting uncomfortably, Sarvalen said, "I am not a lore-keeper. It is not proper for me to share the legends with an outsider." He smiled ruefully. "I cannot do them justice."  
  
"I'm not just an outsider," Ace pointed out. "I'm the Doctor's companion. A fellow-traveler of the War God."  
  
Sarvalen appeared to consider this. "What you say is true," he said slowly. "Very well. I will tell you." He sat on the cavern floor with his back to the house and gestured for Ace to join him. He closed his eyes and began to drone in a trancelike monotone.  
  
“Centuries ago, our ancestors lived above the ground in a world that loved them. The sun did not pierce their eyes, food grew from the ground, and water was provided by the sky. They had many wondrous devices — some magical, some technological. War was almost unknown. The Doctor was appeased through games of sport instead of battle, and all was well.  
  
“Then came the Cataclysm. A battle between the gods spilled over into the skies of Kalibad. The army of the Doctor clashed with the host of the Corruptor, and the flashing lights from their magic lit up the sky day and night. The battle went on for three days and three nights before the Doctor's forces were defeated. The Corruptor's army departed, but one of the Doctor's men fell from the sky in the midst of an inferno. It is said that when he hit the ground, the place was forever cursed. From that accursed spot spread the Great Cataclysm: a tremendous burst of magic which destroyed everything on the surface.  
  
“All that survived were beneath the ground, in the caves: the children, their caretakers, and precious few of the ancestors' devices. The Doctor's soldier came to the ancestors then, badly wounded. He declared that he brought a gift from the Doctor, but before he could reveal it, a servant of the Deceitful One appeared and worked a terrible magic on the soldier of the Doctor. The Doctor’s soldier managed to vanquish the creature and gave our ancestors the Fire of Kalibad. He then returned to the Halls of the Doctor to heal.  
  
“The few adult Kalibadi remaining alive created something to use the power of the Fire to power the remaining devices, but they were made horribly ill by their exposure to it and died shortly after. Before long, the first Honored One was chosen, and our civilization as we know it began.”  
  
Ace sat in silence for a moment, processing what she'd just been told. She was starting to suspect what had happened, but decided to see what the Doctor thought before drawing any conclusions. And she still was no closer to figuring out exactly what the Fire was.  
  
"Thank you," she said at last, rising from the ground and offering Sarvalen a hand up. "That was very enlightening."  
  
Sarvalen ducked his head. “It was not told nearly as well as a master lore-keeper could have,” he said. “My words are rough and bright.”  
  
Ace smiled. “Perhaps,” she said. “But perhaps not. I need to go find the Doctor.”  
  
“Good journey,” Sarvalen said solemnly. Ace returned the salutation and headed off.  
  


* * *

  
After about ten minutes of calculated wandering, Ace found the Doctor fuming. He was glaring at a hut across the road.  
  
“What’s up?” Ace asked.  
  
“Found the next Honored One,” the Doctor said shortly. “But _they_ found her first.”  
  
There was a commotion from inside the hut, and Kaldan and three other Kalibadi emerged, one of them dragging a young girl at gunpoint. “We are going to the Passage of Fire, False Doctor!” Kaldan called. “Try to stop me, if you can!”  
  
“I probably can’t,” the Doctor said easily, crossing the street with Ace. “Seeing as you’ve got a hostage and all. But we’ll go with you. I must admit I’d like to see the Fire.”  
  
“It has been many years since he looked upon it,” Ace added, matching her tone to the more formal speech of the Kalibadi. “He desires to see what has become of it.”  
  
“Of course,” Kaldan sneered. “You may accompany us.” He turned his back on the pair and strode off, his lackeys following behind with the girl.  
  
Ace and the Doctor followed behind. “What did you find out?” the Doctor asked quietly.  
  
Ace related the story she’d been told by Sarvalen. “My best guess,” she concluded, “is that there was a massive space battle and one of the ships crashed, destroying the planet’s biosphere. I’ve got no idea about the bit with the war god’s soldier, though.”  
  
“I have my suspicions,” the Doctor said. “But we’ll see soon enough if I’m right.”  
  
The motley group passed through winding passages which grew narrower and narrower, all the while led by Kaldan. As they went deeper into the caves, the lichen on the walls shifted in color, from the pale green of the living level to a richer kelly, and then finally, as the passage opened up into a sort of antechamber, into a deep forest green.  
  
Kaldan stopped in front of a pulsing, man-sized patch of lichen. He gestured, and the Kalibadi holding the girl dragged her forward. As she approached, the lichen pulsed faster and faster before going completely dark. There was a grinding sound, and the lichen dropped away from the wall, revealing an open doorway behind it. Kaldan roughly dragged the girl through the passageway. The Doctor made to follow, but was blocked by Kaldan’s thugs.  
  
“No, let him through,” Kaldan’s voice echoed back. “I want him to see this. He can’t stop me.”  
  
The Doctor and Ace passed through the narrow passage behind the doorway and found Kaldan and the girl waiting in front of an incredibly complex piece of machinery. Kaldan turned to smile at them. “This device harnesses the power of the Fire of Kalibad,” he told them. “It sends the energy thus produced to the devices left from our forefathers. I believe, with the new Honored One’s help, and possibly some guidance from you, False Doctor, I can alter it to restore the surface. It is a truly magnificent piece of work, and the power of the Fire is indescribable.”  
  
“You hold all the cards, Kaldan,” the Doctor said. “I’ll help you if I can. But don’t forget: you will face a reckoning for the Honored One’s murder.”  
  
“Yes, of course,” Kaldan said, his smile turning sardonic for a moment. “Now, all I need to do is pull this lever—” He gestured. “—and the chamber will open, exposing Rontas here to the Fire and transforming her into the new Honored One.” He turned to the girl. “You will help me when you’re able, won’t you?”  
  
The girl nodded, clearly terrified.  
  
Kaldan grasped the lever. “Behold!” he bellowed. “ _The Fire of Kalibad!_ ” He yanked the lever down and a maelstrom of energy swirled out of the chamber.  
  
Regeneration energy.


	4. Part 3

PART THREE  
  
Kaldan grasped the lever. “Behold!” he bellowed. “ _The Fire of Kalibad!_ ” He yanked the lever down and a maelstrom of energy swirled out of the chamber.  
  
Regeneration energy.  
  
Ace inhaled sharply and glanced at the Doctor. For a moment, pure shock was written across his face, but it was slowly replaced with a humorless smile as he began to chuckle grimly.  
  
"Of course," he said. "It's so obvious now."  
  
Kaldan had paused at the Doctor's reaction. "If you're quite finished, Doctor, I'm going to complete the procedure."  
  
"No, you aren't," the Doctor said. He turned to the girl Kaldan had called Rontas. "Run."  
  
Rontas dashed for the passageway. Kaldan raised his small pistol. Ace disabled it with her sonic screwdriver, turned up the gain, and directed the tool towards the passage. She was rewarded by the sound of three more guns short-circuiting. "Be right back," she called to the Doctor. He nodded, his gaze fixed on Kaldan.  
  
"I told you you'd face punishment," the Doctor said as Ace dashed after Rontas.  
  
In the antechamber, Rontas had been seized by one of Kaldan's thugs. Without pausing, Ace dropped into a slide tackle, hitting the man's ankle with her foot as hard as she could. Howling in pain, the man dropped Rontas, who made for the outer passageway. The other two goons tried to chase her, but Ace took them down with a kick to the stomach and a karate chop to the base of the skull.  
  
A piercing shriek echoed from the inner chamber, trailing off into a sickening gurgle, and then nothing. Ace ran back in to find the headless body of Kaldan sprawled against the machine that contained the Fire. The Doctor was staring at it with a fathomless expression.  
  
He looked up as Ace entered. "He was fully exposed to the regeneration energy," the Doctor said. "Even a Time Lord can't stand this high of a concentration for long."  
  
"How?" Ace asked.  
  
The Doctor glanced at the body. "He was trying to climb in and use it against me. Can't say I'm particularly upset." He stepped over to the machine and looked in. "Feels like holding my face over a pot of boiling water. Come take a look."  
  
"Won't my face melt?" Ace objected.  
  
"Nah," the Doctor said. "You should be all right. You were on Gallifrey for quite a while."  
  
Ace stepped over to the short end of the casket, where the regeneration energy was the weakest. Peering in, she could see the body of a Time Lord stuck in some sort of perpetual regeneration. It was shifting through faces rapidly, looping around after every thirteenth. The expression on the ever-changing face, though, was locked in a grimace of perpetual agony.  
  
"Is he still alive?" Ace asked.  
  
"Technically, yes," the Doctor said. "But we can't save him." He sighed heavily. "He was a friend of mine during the Time War. Capellerataven. I called him Capel because it annoyed him." He dragged a hand down his face, looking older than Ace had ever seen him.  
  
"What's happening to him?" she asked.  
  
The Doctor pulled away from the machine. "I'll explain later," he said. "We haven't got the time now. You didn't happen to bring any Nitro-9 with you, did you?"  
  
"Course I did," Ace said, swinging her backpack off. "But if we blow this up, won't all of the Kalibadi die?" She expected some sort of immediate rationalization, a flat denial, a reassurance that their civilization would go on.  
  
The Doctor didn't reply for a long moment, staring at the energy pouring out of the casket. The flickering light made him look utterly inhuman. "Yes," he finally said. "Right on schedule."  
  


* * *

  
It only took a couple minutes to set up the canisters of Nitro-9. The small cavern was carved, not naturally formed, and it wasn't the most structurally sound place Ace had ever been. Most of the canisters were devoted to the machine itself. Any device capable of storing and converting this much regeneration energy needed to be very durable.  
  
As they finished up, the Doctor said, "It has to happen exactly as the loop of regenerations resets from thirteen to one. Otherwise he'll survive in an earlier body and we'll create a massive paradox." He held a pocketwatch between him and Capel's body. "All right," he said, snapping the pocketwatch shut and tucking it away. "Let's get out of here."  
  
Kaldan's goons still hadn't recovered from the fight with Ace. "You'll get yours, woman!" shouted the one with the broken ankle as they strode past him. "Just wait and see!" Ace ignored him and followed the Doctor through the passageway with the gradient moss. When they reached the main cavern, Ace pulled out her sonic screwdriver and the Doctor pulled out his watch.  
  
"When I say 'go', hit it," the Doctor said. He stared intently at the watch. "Steady... steady... go!"  
  
Ace hit the activator on her sonic screwdriver, triggering the Nitro-9. The sound of the explosion rumbled from the cave opening. Before long, a blast of smoke and dust erupted from the gap.  
  
The magnitude of what the pair had just done hit Ace as they walked back towards the settlement. They had just doomed an entire civilization to death. These people would have no means to produce food, no advanced medical technology, and no way to even reach the upper levels of the village. Ace briefly wondered if anybody had been using the antigrav lifts or floating discs before shoving the thought away.  
  
Ace was having a hard time reconciling what they'd just done with the cheerful, confidently optimistic Doctor she knew. As the Professor he'd had darker times, certainly, but he'd never committed genocide.  
  
"What was happening to Capel?" she asked, trying to distract herself from her thoughts.  
  
The Doctor sighed. "I'm nearly certain that the servants of the Corrupter that Sarvalen told you about were actually Daleks. Near the end of the Time War, they developed a new weapon. See, the Time Lords had thousands of paradox machines running constantly, which let them revive those who'd run out of regenerations with time travel — and given that they'd increased the regeneration limit to sixteen for the more experienced soldiers, this meant that the Daleks were becoming increasingly outmatched.  
  
"In response, the Daleks developed and unleashed a new weapon called the Degeneration Matrix. It would trap the victim in a time loop while continuously inflicting lethal damage on them, causing them to regenerate endlessly. The looping effect caused the regeneration energy they cast off to build to immense levels, preventing anybody going near them with a TARDIS to break the time loop or kill and resurrect them. That's when the tide of the war started turning against us."  
  
"So why could we get close enough?" Ace asked.  
  
"Well, the machine was still siphoning off the majority of the regeneration energy," the Doctor said, "so we could get close enough to permanently kill him with your Nitro-9. Even if we had a paradox machine, though, we would have had no chance of saving him. I've got no way to reach the point in time when he was shot by the Dalek."  
  
"The ancestors of the Kalibadi must have realized what was happening when he started to regenerate," Ace said, realization dawning. "So they stored him somewhere safe while they designed the machine that harnessed the energy. Maybe that's even how they carved out that cavern."  
  
"Could be," the Doctor said. "Of course his initial few cycles of regenerations wouldn't have been violent enough to kill them instantly, and we know for a fact that they were killed by the energy after figuring out how to harness it. So he must have been kept near the cave, at least."  
  
They could hear screams echoing from the village long before they were actually in it. Once there, it was difficult to shove through the masses of panicking people running this way and that, screaming or crying or begging their gods for help. Fire had started to spread across one wall of lichen, presumably from crashed antigrav vehicles.  
  
As the pair ducked into a narrow alleyway to get their bearings, Ace looked at the scene with dismay. "We have to do something, Doctor," Ace said. "We can't just let them die."  
  
The Doctor wheeled on her, his face lined with emotion. "What do you want me to do, pack them all aboard the TARDIS?" he snapped. "'Here you go, new planet, have some sunglasses, you'll need them'? Even if we could get them all aboard, they'd never survive. There's only five thousand of them, Ace. Well below a sustainable population." He shook his head. "Come on, we've got to get back to the TARDIS before it gets any worse in here."  
  
They'd nearly managed to push their way along the thoroughfare to the edge of the village when they saw Pezen and Sarvalen waiting at the entrance to the tunnel leading back to the TARDIS.  
  
"I thought I might see you here, O Doctor," Pezen said. "This is your doing, I think."  
  
"Yes," the Doctor said simply, a pained expression flitting across his face so quickly Ace doubted the Kalibadi noticed.  
  
"Why, Doctor?" Sarvalen pleaded. "Did our war games not please you? Were we judged and found wanting?" He turned to Ace. "Will you not intervene on our behalf? We have done nothing!"  
  
"Sarvalen, that legend you told Ace—" the Doctor began.  
  
"You told our legends to an outsider?" Pezen interrupted, looking at Sarvalen in shock.  
  
"A companion to the War God!" Sarvalen said defensively. "She could hardly be called a typical outsider."  
  
"Enough!" the Doctor roared. They fell silent. "Your ancestors were lied to. I did not send a messenger bearing the Fire of Kalibad. One of my people was fatally injured by my enemies and came seeking me. Your ancestors designed a machine to drain his life energy, which has been powering your civilization for these hundreds of years. I was faced with a choice: I could let your doomed civilization continue to live in relative comfort until the end, at which point my friend would be trapped in eternal agony for no reason, or I could end his misery while ending your civilization early. What choice would you have made, in my place?"  
  
Pezen and Sarvalen didn't answer. Pezen was gazing at the Doctor in undisguised shock, while Sarvalen stared in shame at the ground.  
  
"Truly, the Doctor delivered the correct judgment upon us," a voice said from behind them. Ace turned to see Dashek limping toward them, leaning heavily on a walking stick. "No creature on Kalibad or in all the heavens deserves such torment. We have done horrible things to survive."  
  
"I wish I could save your people," the Doctor said. "I really, really do. The Kalibadi have so much to offer the universe. But even if I could replace the Fire, your civilization couldn't last. There's too few of you, now."  
  
Ace was struck by inspiration. "Come with us," she said. "All three of you. We can take you anywhere. The Kalibadi can't be saved, but at least some of you should see the universe before you're gone."  
  
The Doctor looked at her and smiled. "Come and make names for yourselves. Make sure the peoples of the universe never forget the Kalibadi."  
  
Dashek smiled sadly. "I am dying, Doctor," he said. "I could never live long enough to make my mark. I have perhaps hours."  
  
"Then let me show you something spectacular," the Doctor said, holding his hand out.  
  


* * *

  
"Nearly there," the Doctor said as he raced around the console, flipping levers and hitting buttons. Ace could've helped him, but he honestly seemed to work better without somebody else to trip him up.  
  
The Kalibadi were sitting in a corner, taking in their surroundings. To their credit, they were utterly unfazed by the TARDIS's bizarre dimensions. When Ace had asked why, Pezen had simply replied, "Why should a god be limited by the constraints of mere mortals?" and the other two had nodded agreement.  
  
Ace heard the familiar wheezing noise as the TARDIS returned to normal space. "Here we are," the Doctor said, whirling his way over to the exit. "One of my favorite art installations in the entire universe." He threw open the doors to reveal something astonishing.  
  
Five red giants were arranged on the same orbit around a blue dwarf star, near enough that their stellar material was being sucked in in an astonishing pattern of wispy light, swirling into the tiny, dense star in the center. Belting the arrangement was a Saturn-like ring of material that must have been millions of miles in diameter, shimmering with the reflected light of the six stars.  
  
"But... how?" Sarvalen asked, completely blown away.  
  
"Do you really want to know?" the Doctor asked.  
  
Sarvalen shook his head.  
  
"I think I would like to rest here, Doctor," Dashek said. He hadn't risen from his seat and was leaning heavily against the wall. "My time has come. Send my body to join this dance."  
  
The Doctor sat next to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Of course. Rest easy, Dashek."  
  
Dashek smiled, closed his eyes, and passed away.  
  


* * *

  
Once Dashek had been sent to his eternal rest and Sarvalen and Pezen had been dropped off in a fairly busy spaceport with some money and translators, the TARDIS returned to Kalibad. "I want to check out the Accursed Place," the Doctor had said. "It's usually worth checking out TARDIS crash sites."  
  
While the Doctor poked around at the rocks on the charred ground, Ace took in the big picture. This place was even more desolate than their original landing spot. There were no veins of minerals, no hint of any geological formations, only a complete uniformity to the slate-grey ground. Even the sky looked almost listless. The Doctor took the opportunity of her distraction to slip something he'd located into his coat pocket without her seeing.  
  
"When Capel's TARDIS hit the ground," the Doctor said, calling Ace's attention back to him, "it exploded. Normally they're designed to prevent that sort of thing, you see, but it had probably taken severe damage from the battle with the Daleks. So it exploded, sending a massive wave of time energy across the entire planet. Everything aboveground was instantly wiped out, of course, but anything underground was partially shielded. They were only hit by side effects."  
  
"That's why the Kalibadi were able to develop such a symbiosis between themselves, the lichen, and the Fire so quickly," Ace said. "Some sort of accelerated evolution."  
  
"Exactly," the Doctor said. "That's also how the palarons came about. You see, the evolutionary potential of a species is stored in every member's temporal signature — that is to say, the imprint an individual leaves on the timeline contains the entire past, present, and future of their species. Completely non-biological, of course, so there's no way to examine or unlock it unless you can play with time. Now, a massive wave of time energy would bust the signature wide open. In the case of the Kalibadi and the lichen, that helped along their symbiosis, like you said. In the case of the palarons, which must have been much closer to the surface, I suspect that instead of any sort of gradual change, they simply assumed their current form upon the birth of the next generation, without any sort of interim gradual change. Otherwise they never could have survived with so little prey."  
  
"There's one last thing I'm not quite sure about, Doctor," Ace said as they boarded the TARDIS. "You told Pezen and Sarvalen that their ancestors had been lied to about Capel. Did you mean by the Daleks?"  
  
"By their caretakers," the Doctor replied. "According to the story Sarvalen told you, the only survivors were children and the adults who cared for them. Instead of telling them the truth of what had happened — I suspect the Kalibadi were advanced enough that they understood more or less what was going on — they told a sort of fairy story version, which became fused with their religion once the adults died."  
  
Ace sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I really wish we could've done more," she said.  
  
"I know."  
  
"But at least the Kalibadi will be remembered."  
  
"Yes." The Doctor smiled a little. "In fact, I suspect the only reason I know about Kalibad to begin with is because Pezen and Sarvalen made sure to spread tales of it far and wide across the cosmos."  
  
"That just gives me a headache," Ace said. She closed her eyes and leaned against a wall. "Take me somewhere fun, Doctor. I want to forget about this trip for a while."  
  
"Will do," the Doctor said, and he dashed around the console poking at the various instruments.  
  
And with a strained _VWOORP VWOORP VWOORP_ , the TARDIS faded from Kalibad VII.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for sticking with me through this, folks. As you may have noticed, this is the first part in a series. Not making any promises about how often stuff goes up because work and my original writing have to take precedence. It also won't all be in the same format — this was modeled after classic series serials, while the next one I have planned is in more of a new series style. I hope to see you in the next installment!


End file.
